Objective(s):
• Analyze and contextualize a sporting topic through a formal writing assignment.
• Demonstrate a satisfactory understanding of the impact of neoliberalism and the neoliberal processes of individualization and privatization on sport and physical culture.
Instructions:
For this assignment, you are tasked with writing a formal academic essay of at least 1,250-1,500 words. Keep in mind, this minimum word requirement is based on the actual paragraphs of writing in the essay and does not include the title page and reference pages.
The goal of the essay is to effectively conduct a “sociological imagination” of one’s experience with either a public or private iteration of sport or physical culture. Specifically, students need to contextualize these sporting experience in relation to the processes of neoliberalism.
The purpose is to better understand the ongoing privatization of sport in the twenty-first century, the ways in which this privatization impacts people’s sporting experiences, and the ways in which this can be situated within the context of neoliberalism.
For this paper, students will need to:
1. Pick a contemporary sport with which they have some personal experience
a. NOTE: for this third essay, you can either examine the same sport from your second essay, or choose a new sport.
2. Do a bit of online research on this chosen sport using the Internet and TU Library resources (databases and catalog). Learn about the organization of the sport in the twenty-first century: is it mostly a “privatized” sporting opportunity? Is it mostly a “public” sport (meaning, opportunities are provided by governmental, municipal, or other public institutions)? If the sport is privatized, how has it been commercialized? Where are the sporting opportunities typically located, and how much do they cost?
3. Develop and write a formal essay in which you examine the ways in which neoliberal processes (i.e., privatization, “responsibilitization”) have impacted the sport.
The essay should be framed so as to address questions such as the following:
1. What is your personal experience with the privatized (or public) sport?
2. How or in what ways have the processes of neoliberalism impacted your experience with the sport?
3. What has been the specific impact of privatization on the sport?
Source Requirements:
At least seven sources need to be found through research, cited in your essay, and listed on reference page(s) at the end of the essay. This includes the following:
• At least two peer-reviewed, scholarly sources that you found through your own research.
o For this assignment, a scholarly source is either a full-length articles in academic journals, a book, or an ebook. For an example of what a scholarly source looks like, see the assigned readings.
o The assigned readings do not count towards this requirement.
o You need to find two different scholarly sources for this third essay. They should not be the scholarly sources you used in the first or second essays.
• At least two additional online sources (newspaper or magazine articles) that you found through your own research.
o Examples of online sources – an article in a newspaper such as the Washington Post or Baltimore Sun; an article in a magazine such as Sports Illustrated or The Atlantic; a longform piece for website such as ESPN.
• You need to cite and reference at least two Lecture PowerPoints.
• You will need to cite and reference at least one of the assigned readings for Lecture 3 (either the Ingham and McDonald or the Gard et al reading).
Formatting Requirements:
• Your essay will need a title page that is in APA style (American Psychological Association). This is the official formatting and citation style of the Sport Management field.
o You can also find an APA-style template for the title page and essay here: https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/paper-format/title-page
• Essays need to use Times New Roman 12-pt. font.
• Essays need to be double spaced with 1-inch margins on all four sides.
• The essay needs to be formal, with an introduction, effective transitions between paragraphs, and a conclusion.
• Limit your use of headers and subheaders in your paper. It is better to submit an essay that demonstrates the connections/links between your paragraphs, rather than separate them using headers.
• You can include direct quotes from your sources, but do not include block quotes or direct quotes longer than 30 words.
• Papers must include citations and a reference page that is correctly formatted according to a formal citation style.
o See the citation and reference guide in the course syllabus!
o Once again, the paper template will provide you with an example of how to do citations and refences.
o For more information about APA citations and references, visit this link: https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines
